Promising new HIV treatment now available in Ontario

Ontario is now providing access to a new HIV treatment as diagnosis rates in the province continue to rise.

Biktarvy is a one-pill-a-day for HIV infection in adults that, as of July 31, is now covered under the Ontario Drug Benefit Program.

It has virtually no side effects for most patients, and can rapidly lower HIV viral load to undetectable levels — which means the virus isn’t being spread.

“It’s a public health/community goal to have everyone who is HIV-positive to have an undetectable load so we reduce the number of new infections,” said Dr. Jason Brunetta, director at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Medical Clinic and principal investigator for Biktavry clinical trials.

Ontario has the highest number of reported HIV cases in Canada at 39%, while Toronto is the city with the highest number and rates of new diagnoses in the province — according to HIV surveillance reports dating to 2017.